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Ohio Senator Questions Constitutionality of Quota in Medical Marijuana Law

photo of Bill Seitz
OHIO SENATE

Ohio’s new medical marijuana law is set to go into effect in September but questions are being raised about its constitutionality.

Republican state Senator Bill Seitz says part of the new law specifies minorities fill a certain number of slots in growing and processing marijuana that would be used for medicinal use.

He questions the constitutionality of that practice.

“We don’t have strict quotas on doctor licenses, lawyer licenses or engineer licenses so I guess some would question why are we having that as applied to marijuana licenses?” he said.

Seitz says he tried to get this requirement removed as the bill went through the legislative process but couldn’t.

The bill cleared the Ohio Senate by only three votes.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.